More Guns Less Crime by John Jr (ebook reader macos .txt) 📗

are easy to find; see, for example, Deborah Hastings, "Girl Killed in California During Stop for Ice Cream on Parents' Anniversary," Associated Press, June 18, 1997, dateline Los Angeles, 02:50 a.m. EDT).

70. See Richard Connelly, "Handgun Law's First Year Belies Fears of 'Blood in the Streets,'" Texas Lawyer, Dec. 9, 1996, p. 2.

71. See the Florida Times-Union, May 9, 1988, and Palm Beach Post, July 26, 1988.

72. Flynn, "Gun-Toting Kentuckians Hold Their Fire," p. Al.

73. However, other polls, such as one done by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, a group that I will discuss again in chapter 7, argue that people favor more restrictions on gun ownership and claim that 82 percent favored mandatory registration of all handguns (Larry Bivens, "Most Want Child-Proof Handguns, Poll Shows," Detroit News, Mar. 14, 1997, p. A5).

74. Tom Smith, "1996 National Gun-Policy Survey of the National Opinion Research Center: Research Findings," (Chicago: National Opinion Research Center, Mar. 1997), p. 21.

75. Ibid., pp. 8—9. The survey did include overwhelmingly positive responses to many questions on additional safety regulations for guns. I believe that many of these responses would have been significantly altered if the questions had been posed in terms of the trade-off between safety benefits and estimates of their costs, or if terms describing dangers to children had been eliminated (especially, as already noted in the text, since the number of children harmed by gun accidents is probably much smaller than most people believe).

76. Ibid., p. 13. The other major deciding factor for people's views on gun control appears to be whether they trust government. Those who do trust government are much more in favor of gun control.

77. Erika Schwarz (the first runner-up in the 1997 Miss America Pageant) decided to obtain a gun after a gunman stole her car when she pulled into her driveway. "It's about time they allow citizens to protect themselves. I don't advocate taking the law in your

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own hand. But in a situation where you're cooped up in a car or house and somebody wants to harm you, this is a good law" (Guy Coates, "Beauty Gets Ready to Shoot Car-jackers," Chattanooga Free Press, Aug. 14, 1997, p. B7). Similar stories are told by others who were motivated to obtain firearms training. A recent Wall Street Journal story discussed the reasons given by fourteen people who enrolled in a self-defense class run by Smith & Wesson: "The budget analyst had a knife held to her throat in a crowded Manhattan bar. Ms. Denman awoke 18 months ago in her rural home to find a masked, armed burglar at the foot of her bed. He'd kicked in her deadbolted door, and shot at her several times before fleeing. She dialed 911, and then waited 45 minutes for help to arrive." See Caitlin Kelly, "Gun Control," Wall Street Journal, Sept. 12, 1997, p. A20.

78. "Georgia Lawmakers Quietly Vote Themselves the Right to Carry Weapons," Associated Press, dateline Atlanta, Mar. 19, 1996, 11:09 p.m. EST.

79. According to Larry Mason of the Association of California Deputy District Attorneys, "The association is ... glad prosecutors have been permitted to protect themselves and that they can continue to do so for their own peace of mind and well-being" (quoted in Greg Krikorian, "Lungren Rules Prosecutors Can Carry Guns to Offices," Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1997, p. Bl).

The Fraternal Order of Police has also strongly supported legislation that would allow current or retired police officers to carry concealed handguns with them wherever they travel within the United States. (Prepared testimony of Bernard H. Teodorski, National Vice President, Fraternal Order of Police, before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime (Federal News Service, July 22, 1997.)

80. Los Angeles Times, Jan. 4, 1996, p. El; Louis Graham, "Officials, Celebs Become Gun-Toting Sheriffs Deputies in Long Tradition," Memphis Commercial Appeal, Oct. 3, 1994, pp. 1 A, B7; and Clayton B. Cramer and David B. Kopel, "'Shall Issue': New Wave of Concealed-Handgun Permit Laws" (Independence Institute: Golden Colorado, Oct. 17, 1994).

81. See note 77 above.

82. See Adriel Bettelheim, "Campbell Gunning for Concealed-Weapon Proposal," Denver Post, June 8, 1997, p. A31.

83. Gary Marx and Janan Hanna, "Boy Called Unfit for Murder Trial," Chicago Tribune, Jan. 18, 1995, p. 3; and Joan Beck, "The Murder of Children," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 24,

1994, p. B19.

84. Maggi Martin, "Symphony of Life Ended Too Quickly for Musician: Grieving Friends Say Man Stabbed in Lakewood Had Much to Give," Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 12,

1995, p. 1A.

85. John Stevenson, "Jurors Begin Deliberating Stroud's Fate," Durham (North Carolina) Herald-Sun, Feb. 9, 1995, p. CI.

86. In 1992, only three states did not allow insanity as a defense (Idaho, Montana, and Utah), but even in these states, insanity can be used in determining whether a person had intent.

87. See Dan Kahan and Martha Nussbaum, "Two Conceptions of Emotion in Criminal Law," Columbia Law Review 9(5 (Mar. 1996): 269-374.

88. Model Penal Code § 2100.3(l)(b) (1980).

89. See Kahan and Nussbaum, "Emotion in Criminal Law," Columbia Law Review: 315—17.

90. Bullock v United States, 122 F2d 214 (DC Cir 1941).

91. Kahan and Nussbaum, "Emotion in Criminal Law," Columbia Law Review: 325.

92. Anne Lamoy, "Murder Rate in KCK Lowest Since 1991," Kansas City Star, Jan. 1, 1997, p. CI.

93.